You may have noticed some disruption in the show's first segment this morning. We just want to mention that one of the guests received some difficult news while he was in the middle of the interview. We've checked on him, he is fine. But you need to know that this happens. And while we feel awful for keeping a guest on the air while something is causing him or her personal concern, we really had no way of knowing. That's one reason we try to have guests in the studio with me, or in a studio somewhere if possible. There is no way to communicate with a guest who is calling in from a home phone. And we have to ask people to turn off their blackberries because the signals are picked up by the microphones (trust me on this). It's a dilemma

It was a sad but invigorating morning. We learned late yesterday afternoon that John Hope Franklin had died. The preeminent historian was 94 years old. We were able to find two preeminent scholars to offer their reflections. And we'd like to hear yours. Do you remember when you first encountered his work? And what it meant to you? We'd like YOU to tell US more.

And finally, if you are annoyed on principle by people who quote their kids then stop reading now (and it's okay; everybody has their pet peeve; I don't judge), but I want to report an interesting conversation I had with my kids last night, who are five years old. My son had just broken one of my favorite plates. I was quite annoyed. It's not just any plate. It was given to me as a gift for my service on a board; and for a whole host of reasons I won't go into, it means a lot to me. We had it hanging as a wall decoration in the kitchen, pretty high up, and my son climbed on a chair (which he should not have been doing) and knocked it off the wall. I was across the room and couldn't stop him in time. And I was not pleased. As I was cleaning up, I told him I was very upset with him. He started crying, but I was still too annoyed to be truly sympathetic. And for some reason my daughter asked me how I would feel if I lost my job. I said, "Bad." And then she said, "If you lost your job, would you still be mad about the plate?"

Huh? What?

I guess not.

Kind of puts things in perspective, doesn't it?

3:28 - March 26, 2009

What is this?

Share